Ink's My Thing

This is a journey into the world of a unique online game, whose creator is gearing up for launch. As you’ll soon learn, Planet Fulcrum goes beyond turn-based combat and stats, and into the realm of pop culture and personality. Read on, and if you like what Paul Dellow has to say about his project, then donate to the Kickstarter campaign, up and running right now: Back Planet Fulcrum.

I’d love to learn a little about the developers, and your dream to create Planet Fulcrum. How many of you dreamers are there? When would you say this all started?

My role in Planet Fulcrum is founder, game designer, graphic designer and illustrator, and I have the support of two others when they can. Martin Carroll is the copywriter, and responsible for fleshing out the comic book storyline and prequel comic. Chris Pengelly is another designer who helped me produce the 2000 + items for the character creator system.

My background is in graphic design, and around 2008, after spending many a year advising others on how to go about building a brand, I wanted something for myself, but more of a pet project than a stake in the world. By chance I met an old friend who had told me he was selling comics on eBay but had to give up, as it was taking too much time with not much return. I said I’d be interested in taking on his stock and building my own online comic shop. Just to a. brush up on my coding, and b. reignite my childhood love for science fiction, comics, and cartoons. He gladly offered me over 1000 comic books to do with as I pleased. Awesome!

So in my spare time I built a shop, catalogued the comics, and uploaded all the information into the database. Ready to rock.

I called the store Planet Fulcrum – Center of the Comic Book Universe – and that got me thinking. Looking at my hoard of comics, and the varied genres from superheroes to zombies, G.I. Joes to Wizards and Warriors, I thought, what if Planet Fulcrum was more? A place where all these genres could meet and do battle, kind of a pop culture mashup in one game?

So I decided to sketch, draw, and write all my thoughts into an a5 note pad, positioning everything from gameplay to in-game eco-system and story outline.